I may not be in Rome, but life's still an adventure.

About

I believe we are all called to be saints -- most of us not in showy ways, but in simple ones. Perhaps even monotonous ones. The majority of our life is not comprised of feasts, but is made up of ordinary time. It's up to us to make that ordinary time something worth writing about.

The Southern

Someday, I’ll have a real blog where I muse about important topics and current events, and I’ll become really famous for my witty commentary and sharp insight.

For now, I’ll continue to blog about food. And my awesome town.

Have I mentioned how much I love my town? Did you know that we were recently voted the best city ever? Okay, well, not quite. But if you check out this poll by Travel & Leisure, Nashville comes out on top compared to most other towns. And we were rated #1 for friendliest people and #1 in People “Over all”, whatever that means. It’s such a great place.

After Mass downtown today, a group of us went out to brunch to celebrate the feast and Manda’s birthday. As I drove through downtown, the streets were bustling with people — it was pleasantly warm, so the doors and windows of the honkey tonks were open and the music spilled out onto the streets. It was like driving through at TV show.

We went to one of the newer restaurants downtown, The Southern. A fitting place for our southern belle birthday girl!

They gave us a neat high-backed, round booth, so we had our own little spot to ourselves. Most of the restaurant was sort of “in the round,” and I loved the country chic decor – lots of wood and really great ceiling fans that were connected to each other with big rubber strips. Hard to explain… but very cool.

The menus were attached to wooden boards:

And the food was delicious. Two of my friends got the Southern Fried Egg Sandwich, with bacon, egg, tomato, white cheddar, and avocado. Manda got shrimp and grits, and Maria and I both got “The Highway,” which was the southern classic fried chicken and waffles.

All washed down with blood orange mimosas. Our waiter was awesome- very friendly, but not overly so – and even brought Manda a bellini for her birthday.

One last cool thing about the Southern… the sinks in the bathroom:

How cool is that? It’s just slab of marble… but the water drains to the back, where there’s a little ditch. It was really funky.

It was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday, and we all agreed that we are extremely lucky to have such a great community. At Mass I saw so many people I knew — it’s such a comfort, and something I may tend to take for granted. It’s hard to remember the days after first moving here — well, really two whole years — of feeling like I knew no one and feeling very alone at Mass. I always sat in the back, on the side, and tried to avoid seeing people after Mass because I felt so out of it. What a change from today, when I sat right up front and knew almost everyone sitting around me. After Mass we all stood on the steps and talked — Father, other young adults, people I’ve taught in the Catechetical Formation program, people from my bible studies — one big Catholic family.